One of the fantastic benefits of having kids is that it brings us back to some of the stuff we enjoyed when we were little ourselves – like skipping rope. Watch kids in the schoolyard jumping in and out of ropes and you can clearly see a few of the best things about skipping rope: it’s fun, easy to learn and works up a sweat.
WHY SKIP?
In fact, skipping is a great weightloss tool. We often see it in boxing movies like Million Dollar Baby when the novice is starting to get extremely fit, lose weight and improve their game. Skipping is a sure fire way to get you super fit in little time (just make sure you are 100% fully recovered post birth and have your Dr’s clearance as well as have had a non complicated birth)
With less impact than jogging (provided you don’t jump too high off the ground in your excitement!), fast skipping burns over a third more calories. Great for time poor mums sneaking in a session while the little one is down or if you want to pick up your workout and up your challenge.
Our skipping workout below will work your arms, legs and core, build coordination, improve your strength and agility and improve cardiovascular fitness. Try doing intervals of the various exercises, alternating faster and bigger movements with just jumping side to side in step touch or figure eights with your arms to improve even faster.
HOW TO
– Measure your rope: stepping one foot into the rope, you want to be able to pull the ends right up to your sternum at the centre of your chest below your bra strap but not your armpits.
– Wear supportive shoes that have padding underneath the fore- to midfoot. Crosstraining shoes are great.
– Find an even surface to work on. If you’re jumping indoors, you can even leave out the rope to start with and you’ll still get almost all of the same benefits. Outdoors, head to a basketball course near you, schoolyard, boardwalk or oval. Concrete is fine too but if you do have an option, choose a springy ground.
– Jump 1-2 inches off the floor. Not higher! There will be exercises where you jump higher but start with little lifts. It’s much better for your joints!
– Elbows stay close to your body as you skip but don’t just move your wrists only. The movement is similar to the one the forearm and wrist to in a backhand in badminton, table tennis or tennis – minus the upper arm. Stabilise your shoulders instead.
– If you need a breather, don’t stand still all of a sudden. Keep moving. eve if it’s just treading water while walking to grab some water.
THE WARM-UP
Step Touch.
Ever been to an aerobics, Tae Bo or boxing class? Then you’ll know the easy shuffle from one foot to another (perhaps with the rope lying down underneath you, so you have something to clear and move over) that can get progressively bigger and bigger as you go, adding in arm movements as you go. Important: don’t lift your feet high unless if you do a big step touch as a holding pattern in between skipping.
Make sure your knees don’t fall out or in. Let your hips move freely. Get into the groove.
If you want to just stay with this and practice for a while, you can tie the rope just below knee height somewhere and jump side to side.
This basic move is excellent to warm up, start activating the core and hip stabilisers.
Bunny Hop.
Jumping with both feet off the ground with an emphasis and about 1-2 inch jump on every second jump. This is a natural jumping pattern for a lot of beginners. keep feet, ankles, knees softly flexed and feather off the ball of the foot. Feet are hip distance, toes and knees pointing forwards.
Add in rotation of the wrists starting from the elbow, imagining you’re holding a rope in the hands. Keep shoulders stable and down, try not to hunch but remain strong in your core and open in your chest instead.
Speed up and do one rotation of forearm/ wrist to one jump, cutting out the low bounce in between – this point is crucial. Imagine you’re holding your rope and jumping through every time it hits the floor.
This is excellent training for your shoulder stabilisers and coordination of arms and legs.
Alternate Step Touch and Bunny Hop to the music you’re listening too.
The Crab.
Bring your feet out wide and turn them out so kneecaps can still track over toes, lift your elbows to shoulder height and palms turned forwards – like goddess pose in yoga. keep the belly drawing in, upper body upright while alternating lifting your feet off the ground.
In Basketball training, this move is called quivering cause you move so fast your whole body seems to quickly shake. It’s as if you had fire under the balls of your feet.
This move is an excellent strengthener for your lower core muscles and buttocks and strengthens your shoulder stabilisers.
To add on or make this harder, crab your way over to one side, then the other, then forwards, then back. You’ll work up a sweat and bring up your heartrate in no time.
Side Lassoo.
Holding both ends of the rope and bringing the hands close together, created a figure eight movement with the rope to your side. Two circles on left, cross over at centre, two circles on right. This time, lean your whole body into it. Imagine your ducking and weaving like a boxer or playing with a horse in front of you, trying to confuse it. Keep your tummy in and shoulders relaxed.
Speed up and to single circles each side to make it faster and more difficult.
This will work your obliques in particular and warm up your arms as well.
Once you’ve got this down pat, add in a step touch.
MAIN WORKOUT
Jump Through
Time to get bouncing! Simple one bounce on each circle of the rope. Keep shoulders down, spinning from elbows.
If you start getting quite advanced, try two circles/ spins of rope in one higher jump, drawing feet closer to your seat. This will make your legs strong and is excellent interval training.
Side to Side, Forward Back, Round the World
Keeping the same speed, jump side to side as if you’re trying to hit two tiles on the pavement just out from your hips.
Then go forwards and back like your hopping on tiles behind and in front of you.
Once you’re more advanced, try drawing a square with your jumps, clockwise then anti-clockwise. (That’s forwards, right, back, left and reverse.)
Single Leg
Lift one foot up gently and do a bunnyhop on one side, then alternate to the other. Try not to let your knees roll in or out but tighten the buttocks instead to stabilise the alignment.
As you get used to the movement, do single circle jump throughs and, if you’re game, try double jump throughs.
The Pony
Step the right foot forwards slightly. Turn both feet out. As you jump, alternate which foot is in front, maintaining the run out of the leg coming from the hip but try to keep your hands level at the hips.
Narrow the Gap
Stand with your feet wider than shoulders. Jump through the rope with your feet underneath your hips in your standard position but land in the wide position again.
BONUS WORKOUT
Running Man
Run forwards stepping through your rope – you will need room for this, so don’t do it indoors. Here, you can pick up pace and distance, you can try running up and downhill to challenge yourself but make sure you’ve got an even surface.
Reverse Jump Through
Holding the rope in front, go for backwards circles and jumps. Again, easy to practice without the rope first. If you’ve reached skipping master level, go for double jump throughs.
COOLDOWN
Try the following yoga stretches you’ll find online:
Lunge stretch/ Crescent lunge
Upward Dog
Ragdol
ADDITIONAL TIPS
MUSIC
Make your workout fun with whatever music gets you up and going – you can check for speed (BPM) online. Ideally, jump to music around 120-125BPM when you start, 130-135BPM as you get more advanced. The warmup can be done slower. Whatever works is great!
INTERVAL TRAINING
Try to mix faster, higher intensity bits with holding patterns from the warm-up like a simple step touch or bunny hop. It’ll help you improve faster and go for longer!
DURATION AND FREQUENCY
We’d recommend to try for twenty minutes 3-4 times a week if you’d like to see great results fairly fast. Throw in a good core routine and just moving around with your kids more and Bob’s your uncle. Can’t make time? Do it during kid’s playtime. Get them jumping too.
HYDRATE
Like with any exercise, you want to make sure you replace water lost and start well-hydrated. But note, just guzzling water and not having electrolytes ain’t so great. Also, you may want to up your protein and healthy greens intake instead of hitting energy bars or sugary treats to make up for the energy spent. Choose healthy foods where possible and eat til your sated. (Should go without saying really?)
BE SAFE
Please check with your doctor if you’re okay to exercise or start with our Pilates exercises to build your core and strengthen hip stabilisers if you’re new to exercise. Like any form of more vigorous exercise, you’ll need to build up a base.
GET YOUR 10% DISCOUNT
If you are ready to lose weight then the Lose Baby Weight plans offer a healthy and safe exercise and diet routine and you can get a 10% discount by using code LOYALTY at the checkout.
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Please note that we do not advise beginning any exercise plan post pregnancy until you have had clearance from your Doctor of Physiotherapist.
This article was written by Sol Walkling, the Lose Baby Weight Pilates expert and Trainer – to see Sol’s credentials and read more about her click here
For more of of our exercises please click here
